The Jewels of Sofia Tate Read Online Free PDF Page B

collect the watch, that Johann and Marie realized their destiny. They were left alone for a few minutes while Johann’s uncle showed the count some works in progress in the back of the shop, and knew they were in love. But it seemed their love was doomed. Marie was already engaged to be married, and Johann was of the wrong class.”
    Garnet frowned. “Wasn’t she in love with the guy she was supposed to marry?”
    Elizabeth shook her head. “It seems not. The man she was to marry was chosen by her father. It was an arranged marriage, you see, to the wealthy Count Vladimir Uvorov, who was twenty years older than her. The problem was that Count Mikhail Ivanov had spent a lot of money — more than he actually had — and his debts were piling up. Count Uvorov would help him financially if he could marry his daughter. It was, therefore, Marie’s duty to marry the man to help her father out. Although Marie had told her father that she did not wish to marry this man, her father wouldnot listen, and she had no one to turn to for help. Her mother, the Countess Elena Ivanov, a distant relative to the Russian Imperial family, had died the year before and her selfish brother, Aleksei, agreed with his father. After all, he stood to inherit the title of
count,
the estate, and all of his father’s belongings, so his sister’s marriage would be in his best interests.”
    â€œPoor Marie!” Garnet exclaimed.
    â€œPoor Marie, indeed. But those were the times,” Elizabeth explained. “Anyway, the wedding to Count Uvorov was two weeks away and Marie knew she didn’t have much time. The following day she met Johann in secret and, over the next few, invented numerous excuses to go to the city — she needed final dress fittings for the wedding, she needed a few more items for her trousseau.... She just had to see Johann again. But it did not take long before the Count Mikhail Ivanov discovered their meetings. He forbade her to ever see Johann again and the coachmen were not allowed to take her anywhere unless she was accompanied by himself or her brother.
    â€œMarie had a servant deliver a message to Johann explaining the situation, and Johann replied, saying that if she loved him, she should pack her things and meet him the next day before dawn. They would elope, five days before her marriage to Count Uvorov was to take place. So, before it was light, she set off on one of thehorses. She did not bring much with her — only a change of clothes, a string of pearls, and a set of jewellery: the diamonds and sapphires, which she had sewn into the lining of her coat the previous evening. The priceless family heirlooms had belonged to her own mother, who had given them to Marie the year before on her eighteenth birthday.
    â€œThe young lovers met and fled Russia. They boarded a train and headed for Germany, where they married and lived with Johann’s parents for a time. But one day a letter arrived from Johann’s uncle. It seemed that some masked men had been to the uncle’s shop and were looking for the couple. Johann’s uncle swore to them that he didn’t know where they were, but they beat him anyway. The letter warned that if the couple was there, they should go into hiding immediately since the men would likely kill Johann and bring Marie back to Russia with them, along with the jewellery she had purportedly stolen.”
    Garnet shifted in her seat. “So where did they go?”
    â€œAs far away as possible. To Canada. They sold the pearls and bought tickets for the ship passage over. With the little money that Johann had set aside, and with some that his father had given him, they set sail, bringing with them the sapphire jewels, a crucifix, and the hope that they would never be found by Marie’s family in the new land.
    â€œWhen they landed in Montreal, they soon heard of a place called Berlin in Ontario, where people spoke German. They